Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Yellowface

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

107 reviews

emilywemily6's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was so good, I listened to this entire audiobook in just one day. It’s cringey and realistic, with lots of micro aggressions and covert racism. It was a fascinating read, and as a white person, I could see the slippery slope of racism/appropriation. This is a book I will think about for a long time. I didn’t prefer the ending (this book almost felt like it would end up as a literary horror but it didn’t go quite that far). The main character kind of descends into madness but I wanted more. Such a good read that talks about the sins of the publishing industry and the impact of race. The author did a beautiful job making me both hate the main character and feel for her.

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bookishreadingbean's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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abbysingh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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gandalf_a's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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marissasa's review against another edition

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tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is the definition of unlikable main character, to the point of being a horrible, racist, narcissist, entitled, crazy, dumpster fire of a character. The premise is interesting and hooked me because it genuinely could be something that happens in real life given the state of the traditional publishing industry and all the book twitter and booktok drama that happens nowadays. While it was fun to read along and cringe and gasp at how the narrator continuously gets herself into deeper and deeper shit, I do wish there was deeper social commentary and more objective points on how Athena wasn't a perfect person nor a good person at times. Since we only get to hear about her flaws through the biased eyes of the main character, some of the nuance about Athena being a very privileged, pretentious, rich kid with connections at the same time as being a well-loved talented author giving much needed representation in the industry is lost. I also don't think the book needed to be as long as it was, it did drag in some parts where the main character was trying to figure out to write next or was being paranoid. Overall, this felt like watching ugly drama that you can't look away from unfold so you end up staying for the whole thing with popcorn in hand.

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